Three Puzzles of Non-religion in Britain

Voas, David; McAndrew, Siobhan

doi:10.1080/13537903.2012.642725

Cited by 58 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The Youth On Religion study was conducted in three multifaith locations in Britain and clearly shows the intersections between background, culture and ethnicity (Madge, Hemming, and Stenson 2014). Contrary to many other reports (Cragun et al 2012;Voas and McAndrew 2012) but in line with others (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013), it was not able to show a gender difference in relation to religious affiliation.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 54%

“…British Census data suggest that non-religious people are more likely to be male, white, better educated than average, and live in particular geographical locations (Brown and Lynch 2012;Voas and McAndrew 2012). Additional evidence from the 2011 Census suggests that members of the 'no religion' group are predominantly drawn from the white British-born population.…”

Section: Growth and Characteristics Of The Religious 'Nones'mentioning

confidence: 98%

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Young British religious ‘nones’: findings from the Youth On Religion study

Madge

Hemming

2016

Journal of Youth Studies

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This article contributes to an understanding of diversity in beliefs and practices among young religious 'nones' who report the absence of a specific religious faith. It focuses on those describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or otherwise of 'no religion' within (a) a large-scale survey of over ten thousand 13-17-year-olds, and (b) interviews, discussion groups and eJournal entries involving one hundred and fifty-seven 17-18-year-olds, in three British multi-faith locations. Compared to the study population as a whole, the young religious 'nones' were particularly likely to be white and born in Britain. There was, nonetheless, considerable diversity among this group in beliefs and practices: almost half the survey members mentioned some level of belief in God and most of the interview participants pointed to some presence of religion in their lives. Being a religious 'none' is, furthermore, not necessarily a stable identity and some young people had already shown considerable fluidity over their life cycles. Around half the survey members said they had maintained similar religious views to their mothers, but participants in both quantitative and qualitative studies pointed to the impact of their experiences and interactions, as well as the role of science, as factors affecting their beliefs and practices.ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 54%

Section: Growth and Characteristics Of The Religious 'Nones'mentioning

confidence: 98%

Young British religious ‘nones’: findings from the Youth On Religion study

Madge

Hemming

2016

Journal of Youth Studies

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“…In the past decade, research in Great Britain, Australia and America has revealed much about demographic and other background factors associated with being a religious none (see Australian Bureau of Statistics 2013; Singleton 2014;Voas and McAndrew 2012). Less is known about the religiosity -or nonreligiosity -of this group.…”

Section: Research Reportmentioning

confidence: 97%

Are religious ‘nones’ secular? The case of the nones in Australia

Singleton

2015

Journal of Beliefs & Values

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“…In particular, qualitative research is needed to understand how respondents interpret these categories and what they seek to express by selecting them. This methodological question does not undermine research which takes nonreligious populations as a starting point or component part such as demographic research (e.g., Keysar 2007;Voas and McAndrew 2012;Wilson and Sherkat 1994), investigations into the stability of nonreligious populations (e.g., Lim, MacGregor, and Putnam 2010) or research investigating how nonreligious identification correlates or combines with other measures of religiosity and nonreligiosity, namely, belief and practice (e.g., Sherkat 2008;Storm 2009;Voas 2009). Such work enriches our understanding of nonreligious populations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Secular or nonreligious? Investigating and interpreting generic ‘not religious’ categories and populations

Lee¹

2014

Religion

105

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In research dealing with religious affiliation, generic nonreligious categories -'no religion', 'not religious', 'nonreligious', 'nones' -are frequently used to measure secularity and secularisation processes. Analysis of these categories is, however, problematic because they have not received dedicated methodological attention. Using qualitative research conducted in the UK, this article investigates what nonreligious categories measure and, specifically, whether they indicate nonidentification or disaffiliation as assumed or an alternative form of cultural affiliation. Findings suggest that generic nonreligious categories are sometimes used to express substantive positions and public identities, and that these are diverse. These findings flatten distinctions between religious and nonreligious categories as 'positive' and 'negative' respectively and indicate problems therefore in using nonreligious identification to measure secularity and secularisation. They suggest nonreligious identification is, however, a useful indicator of the advance of nonreligious cultures and the 'nonreligionisation' of societies.KEY WORDS: nonreligion and secularity; quantitative methods; atheist identities; indifference to religion; secularisation; nonreligionisation; religion in Britain; religious identities; disaffiliation The generic nonreligious categories frequently used in survey questionnaires appear to differ fundamentally from other identification or affiliation categories. Whether phrased as 'no religion', 'not religious', 'nonreligious' or 'none', these categories are apparently negative, allowing participants to record that a form of cultural identification lacks meaning or relevance to them or is perhaps entirely absent in their lives. Consequently, social researchers and reporters often describe and interpret the use of these categories as acts of 'disaffiliation' or 'non-identification'. Generic nonreligious categories seem, therefore, distinct from more explicitly positive confessional classifications that are also offered in religious identification survey questions. Selecting a category like 'Christian' or 'Hindu' indicates that a respondent is familiar with this term as a cultural marker and that it is meaningful to them to some degree. Such categories allow respondents to share an emic representation -the one that they would Religion, 2014 Vol. 44, No. 3, 466-482, http use in daily life or a reasonable proxy for the one they might normally prefer ('Christian' instead of 'Anglican', for example). By contrast, generic nonreligious options seem to be etic categories, used to locate the remaining individuals inside an analytical rather than a phenomenological framework. As Pasquale (2007, n.p.) says of the 'none' category, the terms themselves indicate that they are 'a function of survey method rather than a self-description'.In many countries in the world, increasing and large numbers of people are today choosing generic nonreligious categories: in Britain, the empirical focus of this article, 51 percent selected '...

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Three Puzzles of Non-religion in Britain

Cited by 58 publications

References 13 publications

Young British religious ‘nones’: findings from the Youth On Religion study

Young British religious ‘nones’: findings from the Youth On Religion study

Are religious ‘nones’ secular? The case of the nones in Australia

Secular or nonreligious? Investigating and interpreting generic ‘not religious’ categories and populations

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